Number of children’s suicides in Russia grew by almost 60% in 2016

According to the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Russian Federation Anna Kuznetsova, one of the main reasons for the increase in the number of child suicides by almost 60% in 2016 are the so-called “death groups” in social networks.

“From 2011 to 2015 the number of suicides in the country has been steadily decreasing by 10% per year, but grew by 57% in 2016. So we have fallen 5 years back by this figure. One of the main reasons for this situation is an explosive growth of the number of ‘death groups’ in social networks,” Kuznetsova said during a conference call on the prevention of juvenile suicides on Monday, March 20th.

She noted that there are many problems in the area of fighting this situation.

“According to our data from the last year, 47% of schools in the Russian Federation did not have a psychologist among their staff,” Kuznetsova said, noting that the problem is currently being solved.

Kuznetsova stressed that in order to solve the problem it is necessary to improve legal and regulatory aspects, improve methodological support and increase the availability of specialists’ assistance.